Gift of the Founders
by whydoyouneedtoknow
Summary: AU, one-shot. “Living with Danger” spoilers for the whole story. Remus examines the Pack-pendants and figures out what all the different carvings mean. Recommended reading before “Living without Danger”!


(Disclaimer: Nope, not mine, wish they were, I'd love to have that much imagination... and be that rich, of course...)

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Remus Lupin absently scratched his nose with his quill. _What a puzzle. _

He looked back over the notes he'd been compiling on what was starting to be called the Pack-pendants – each Marauder wore a set, four small medallions on a fine gold chain, which possessed certain magical properties, including that the carving indicating a certain person would glow if that person was in some sort of trouble – but in order for that to be helpful, they had to know which carving represented which person. Thus Remus' current project.

_Everyone seems to have the same third one – dragon and cat on one side, two birds on other – one bird surrounded by flames, probably phoenix – other bird unidentifiable but has a corvid look –_

"Which in English means it looks like a crow," Remus muttered to himself.

_The older cubs all have the same second one – male lion and wolf paired on one side, dog and winged horse on the other – the dog looks like Padfoot, and the other forms match, so this is probably us – Meghan has a lion on one side, a wolf on the other – why?_

"Probably has to do with being born a cub," he decided aloud.

_The adults' second ones all differ by one – each is missing him/herself – so mine has the wolf alone on one side, the dog and winged horse on the other – _

"Because if it's us in danger, we probably won't need a warning."

_The adults' fourth ones are all the same, wolf, fox, cat, and doe – the cubs' fourth are each missing one, each a different one – Harry the wolf, Draco the fox, Hermione the cat, Meghan the doe –_

"Again, because they don't need warning about themselves."

_All the first ones are different except Hermione and Danger – they both have a book on one side, a rose on the other..._

The sisters' mother's name had been Rose, Remus knew. And she had loved her garden, and the plants that grew there... and their father, David, had been a scholarly man, fond of reading, especially fond of Shakespeare, and had allowed the fondness to spill over into naming both his daughters after Shakespearean queens...

_Meghan's first one has the dog and winged horse again – _

Because Sirius and Aletha were her birth parents. It was looking more and more like the first pendant in everyone's group represented birth parentage, or family in some cases.

_Sirius' has a serpent in the shape of a B on one side, and a star shape on the other – representing his family heritage, mostly in Slytherin, and their habit of naming children after celestial objects? Draco also has the serpent B, but his other side has a narcissus..._

Perfectly appropriate, in both cases – Sirius' birth parents had never cared for him, nor he for them, but his heritage was still part of him, so the symbols of his past were present, but they were more general than the others' were. Draco's birth mother had loved him – had given her life for him – so her symbolic presence, in the form of her namesake flower, was appropriate.

_And B for Black – Lucius Malfoy is not even present by allusion. _

Draco had hated his birth father for a long time with a child's fierce hatred, which was gradually waning as his memories of the man grew dimmer, buried beneath his seven years of loving care from and with the Pack.

_Aletha's has a musical note and a feather – _

Remus knew that his Pack-sister's father had loved music dearly, and had taught his daughter his love. Aletha herself had told him that her mother had worked with birds, injured hawks and falcons, rehabilitating them and either releasing them into the wild or caring for them at a center if they were too badly injured to live free.

_Harry has a stag and a tiger – _

The stag was obvious to the Marauders – it could be no one but their friend Prongs. The tiger had baffled them for a short while, until Sirius had recalled that James always used to drive Lily mad by calling her "Tiger Lily". Coupled with a vague memory of Lily's Patronus, the one time he'd seen it, being something feline, Remus was willing to bet the tiger stood for Lily Evans Potter.

_Mine has a quill and wand on one side, and a violin on the other..._

Remus smiled sadly, looking at the tiny, perfect pictures on his pendant. His Muggle mother, like Aletha's father, had taught her child to love music, and had instructed him in playing the instrument she cared so much about. And maybe his father had been only a clerk at the Ministry of Magic, but he had been a good clerk, helpful and dependable and prompt...

_The wand's spitting sparks. A reminder of what happened, perhaps..._

His parents had been vacationing in a Muggle resort town, the summer before his last year at Hogwarts, while Remus had been staying with the Potters and Sirius. The hotel where they were sleeping had caught fire. His father had made it outside. His mother hadn't.

_And he never really recovered from that. He survived a few years, but he was never happy... it was almost a relief when he went... the war was getting really nasty around that time, and James and Lily were starting to talk about having a child..._

**You look horrendously sad and far away, and there is an enormous blotch of ink on your nose,** said a voice in his mind. A tissue appeared in front of him. **You can tell me to go away, but you're at least wiping your face before Sirius sees you like that.**

**Oh, it can't be that bad,** Remus protested silently, taking the tissue from his wife's hand.

**Can't it?** Danger pulled a small mirror out of her pocket and handed it over. **You tell me.**

**All right, it can, **Remus admitted, scrubbing at his face with the tissue.** I was just trying to work out our Pack-pendants, and got into thinking about my parents. **

**Hold still.** Danger drew her wand and removed the ink from her husband's face with a quick Cleaning Charm. **So are parents part of the pendant scheme?**

**I think so. The first pendant seems to stand for blood parents, or family in some cases – the second one is the adult Marauders, you and me, Sirius and Aletha – the third one I haven't quite figured out yet, but the fourth is the cubs.**

**What's the third one, dragon and cat, phoenix and another bird? **

**That's right.**

Danger retrieved her own pendants from within her blouse and looked at them speculatively. **Pack-friends,** she said finally. **Phoenix for Dumbledore, cat for McGonagall, dragon probably for Hagrid – **

**He used to say he wanted a dragon, **Remus recalled. **It makes sense – which means our unidentified corvid must stand for Snape...**

Danger smiled suddenly. **It's a raven. The day we left the London Den, I fell asleep on your shoulder and made a spot prophecy – in time the raven, something, something, beside the phoenix, the dragon, and the cat. **

**It was "In time, the raven will take his place with honor,"** Remus supplied. **I think you're right. **

They looked at each other.

**We're not telling Sirius about this,** they said simultaneously.

**You owe me a butterbeer,** Remus said quickly.

**Nuts.** Danger made a face at him. **Will you settle for a kiss?**

**Can I get both?**

**Only if you ask very nicely.**

**May I please have both, Madame Granger-Lupin?**

**Oooh, I'm a sucker for proper grammatical forms... come here, you big lion you.**

The notepad and quill slid to the floor unheeded.

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(A/N: Yes, a little Remus/Danger fluff for you, but this is mostly informational... I'm trying to keep exposition in the main story down but still keep everyone up to speed... and yes, before you ask, "Living without Danger" is underway! "Living with Danger", the first main story, is now complete – see my bio page!) 


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